Had some friends over for a birthday game night. Convinced two of them to play Brikwars with my son and I. We used the Mines of Moria set with additional minifigs from Orc Forge and Gandalf Arrives sets plus I whipped up a custom Aragorn.

We did teams; 2vs2 with orcs, goblins, and cave troll on one team and the fellowship on the other. Each of us had 4 minifigs including our heroes. Two guys had never played before. It was a blast and a great way to spend my birthday!

This thread is unworthy because I have no photos of the epic awesomeness... maybe next time.

I don't really see the point in changing them. So they can stand up... neat... how often does anyone really care about that? It's not a bad thing it's just not really that much of an improvement. The legs are still fused together so it's not like you can change the pose very much. Wish they had made the front legs move in a similar way to give more posing options.

Overall they do look much better. Slightly more detail in the curves, overall shape, back of the legs, tail, and head. They should have left the heads the same or same dimensions so the helmets worked.

The new LOTR sets are sweeeet though. The amount of detail in the Mines of Moria is above average for a Lego set.

sjosten wrote:Not an improvement? They can now rear up to crush you when you're in front of them or kick you in the face when you're behind them.

Rear up and pummel someone? Yes!

Kick someone in the face? Not really.... the rear legs only go back so they are horizontal and the feet are kinda low given the articulation of the knees... so it only comes up chest high to a minifig. Again; if the front legs rotated like the back you'd get more flexibility like kicking up higher for example.

morganm wrote:Kick someone in the face? Not really.... the rear legs only go back so they are horizontal and the feet are kinda low given the articulation of the knees... so it only comes up chest high to a minifig. Again; if the front legs rotated like the back you'd get more flexibility like kicking up higher for example.

Imagine a horse's rear hooves impacting your chest...

Still, I agree about the LOTR sets. I've got Moria, Uruk-Hai army, and Shelob sets. I especially love Shelob. The other day I saw the old Harry Potter set with Aragog. I just laughed.

Actually, I really love the uruk-hai and orcs, too.

And everything else.

My only problem-- Legolas's hair means you can't turn his head so he will aim his bow. No matter, I can work around that.

BTW--Legolas is freaking awesome.

This should be in the Rulebook somewhere:

"Any problem on earth can be solved with the careful application of high explosives"
-Valkyrie (the movie)